


Loving You Like This

by araliya



Category: Glee RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-23
Updated: 2018-01-23
Packaged: 2019-03-08 16:43:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13462329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/araliya/pseuds/araliya
Summary: Chris' reaction, and a helping hand.





	Loving You Like This

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Gretta Ray's Drive
> 
> Warning for the presence of Lea Michele in this one, if any of you aren't partial to her.

“ _Chris_.”

 

Lea’s voice is impossibly gentle when he picks up the phone, and though they haven’t spoken in months, Chris isn’t surprised to see her name flash on the screen.

 

“Hi Lea,” he says quietly. He knows why she’s calling. The same reason as everyone else.

 

“How are you doing?”

 

Her voice is gentle and empathetic, and though they’ve had their fair share of fights and discrepancies, Chris can’t deny that she understands this more than most.

 

“I’m dealing.” He takes a deep, shaky breath. “Darren’s a wreck.”

 

“I can imagine.”

 

Chris thinks about the way that morning, Darren had clung to him like a lifeline, gripping his arms hard enough to leave little finger-shaped bruises. He rubs over them absentmindedly as Lea tries to comfort him.

 

“It doesn’t mean anything for your relationship,” she assures him. “You know that, right?”

 

“Of course I know that, Lea. The only real proposal he ever made was the one he made to me.”

 

Lea blazes on, seemingly working herself up in the process. “And this doesn’t lessen the fidelity of you guys’ marriage.”

 

“I _know_ , Lea,” Chris tells her firmly. “It’s _fine_.”

 

She’s quiet for a moment, and Chris can almost hear her trying to uncover his true feelings under the guise of his words. He remembers how good she used to be at it.

 

“It’s not, though,” she whispers finally. “It’s okay to be not okay with this.”

 

Though it’s been years since their relationship could even have been counted as a friendship, it appears that Lea still has that skill.

 

He hadn’t realised how much he’d needed someone who’d seen everything go down from the very first day.

 

“They’re trying to take him away from me,” he gasps suddenly. Tears that he hadn’t even known had been welling up rush hot and fast down his cheeks. “They’re trying to take away my baby.”

 

“ _Chris_ , sweetheart,” Lea says helplessly, and he sinks to his knees.

 

Darren had left a couple of hours earlier, to attend a briefing for his next trip, and the house is thick with the silence. Darren is often away, yet it’s never been this suffocating.

 

“It’s hurting him so _much_ , Lea,” he cries, the wood hard against Chris’ skin. “They don’t even _care_ anymore. I can’t bear to see him like this.”

 

“You just have to love him,” she tells him. “Love him and be there for him.”

 

“I _do_ and I _am_. Always.”

 

“Then everything will be okay,” Lea says softly. Chris’ knees are beginning to hurt enough to notify him to get off the floor, and he does, perching on the edge of the sofa.

 

“Would you like me to come over?” she asks.

 

“Are you sure?”

 

“Of course. We were like family once, Chris.”

 

He smiles in spite of himself. Lea was actually the first person he told about his burgeoning crush on the cute new guy, the one who looked, sang, and danced like a fallen angel.

 

“I’ll be there in an hour or so, okay hon? Sit tight.”

 

“Thank you,” he tells her, before she can hang up.

 

“Always, Colfer.”

 

Lea ends the call with an exaggerated “mwah”, and he sets the phone down shakily on the coffee table. A note tucked under the little basket of dried flowers in the middle of the glass top catches his eye.

 

Chris unfolds the small square of paper, smoothing out the creases with the pads of his thumbs.

 

 _Darling Chris,_ it reads. _The love of my life._

 

The lump in Chris’ throat rises without warning, and he has to swallow roughly before continuing.

 

_Until I met you, I don’t think I ever really knew what love was. I liked the idea of being in love, sure, and I liked to pretend I was experiencing love, but it wasn’t ever the real thing. Not until you._

 

_You crept up on me, Colfer. And then you knocked me flat. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to let myself become vulnerable to someone. You could’ve hurt me, Chris. You could have broken my naive twenty-something year old heart, and I would have let you._

 

_I’m glad you didn’t. I don’t think I could have survived it._

 

_Instead, you decided I was worth keeping. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to you for that. You grounded me, you gave me purpose, and you helped me find that one piece of my life that I had always been missing._

 

_You made me whole._

 

_Marrying you was the best decision I ever made. Please never forget that, my love._

 

Chris sits there until Lea arrives, letting Cooper lick the tears off his cheeks and twisting the thin band of platinum on his finger.

 

It’ll all be okay, is the last thing he thinks, before she wraps her arms around him.


End file.
